Plenty of Recording Arts students begin their education with dreams of scoring credits on official releases by nationally known artists – but some Full Sail students have been able to accomplish that feat while still in school, thanks to the university’s partnership with Winter Park independent record store, Park Ave CDs.
Park Ave CDs has long been the location of exclusive in-store performances from some of music’s most buzzworthy bands, and Full Sail has been there to prepare the stage and record the shows for 81 events. Performances from artists such as Snow Patrol, Gaslight Anthem, Porcupine Tree, and Manchester Orchestra have been officially released throughout record stores across the country.
Each event finds four Recording Arts students accompanying Full Sail faculty members Darren Schneider (Associate Director, Session Recording) and Matt Gorney (Course Director, Music History) in running the sound and recording for the show.
“We run this as a professional gig, not as a lab,” explains Schneider. “Students have to write an essay explaining what they can contribute to the team, and they’re selected by an undisclosed group outside of Full Sail. The students who get to work the in-stores get to act just like an actual assistant engineer would – tearing down, setting up, functioning in a normal environment. These are real gigs.”
While the opportunity to work in such a high-caliber, professional environment is a great resume booster itself, the recordings that are approved by the artist, management, and label for official release provide students with an even greater accomplishment for their credits.
“One of our main objectives is to put students in a pro environment and to get them actual credit on a record,” Schneider continues. “And that’s what happened with the first recording we did [Snow Patrol’s Live and Acoustic at Park Ave]. Four students with their names printed in an album by a GRAMMY®-nominated band before they even graduated school – that’s huge.”
“A number of major labels who have bands they’re trying to break have given the store a call to set up these in-stores,” says Gorney. “There’s only one other record store in the entire country that’s considered competition to Park Ave CDs for these recordings. This is not your average in-store.”
“Everyone knows about this program throughout the industry, and they’re all aware of Full Sail’s involvement,” says Park Ave CDs owner Sandy Bitman. “Whether or not the recordings come out, the bands and the students both get this great experience, and it takes the stress off the store about having to worry about anything sound-related. Knowing that we can accommodate any band’s situation with Full Sail allows us to work with pretty much anything.”
Performance highlights have included ska-punk band Less Than Jake (which prompted the first and only instance of crowd-surfing in Park Ave CDs’ history), Jose Gonzalez (whose Live at Park Avenue EP was likened to Bob Dylan’s legendary Live at Carnegie Hall 1963 by Pitchfork.com), and English prog-rock band Porcupine Tree.
“Porcupine Tree was another great recording, but was also one of our biggest adversities,” says Gorney. “[Band leader] Steve Wilson also mixes all of the band’s material, and he never lets anyone else touch his stuff. The day of the in-store, Darren was trying to talk about effect settings with the band’s sound guy, and he kept getting batted away, like ‘oh, Steven always does this.’ He never lets anyone else’s mix stand, but he did in this case, which is quite an accomplishment.”
Beyond giving students the ability to get the experience and a shot at getting a professional release under their belts, the partnership between Full Sail and Park Ave CDs also exists to remind students of the important role the record store plays in the music industry.
“We do this to let students know that they need these record stores – if they go away and all we have left is the big chain stores, how will you get your name out there as a producer or an engineer?” says Schneider. “Nobody goes online and downloads a song and looks at the credit of who engineered it. With events like these, everybody wins.”
Official Park Ave CDs in-store performance releases include:
- Snow Patrol – Live and Acoustic at Park Ave
- Jose Gonzalez – Live at Park Avenue EP
- Porcupine Tree – We Lost the Skyline
- Matt Nathanson – Left & Right: Live @ Fingerprints, Live @ Park Ave CDs
- The Gaslight Anthem – Live at Park Ave (limited edition 10” vinyl)
- Manchester Orchestra – Mean Everything To Nothing
Other in-store performances have included artists such as:
- Imogen Heap
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Cursive
- Lucero
- Anberlin
- Dr. Dog
- Bayside
- Matt Costa
- Earl Greyhound
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- Mae
- Béla Fleck
- Nada Surf
- Vampire Weekend
- RX Bandits
- Between The Trees
- Peter Bjorn and John
- Living Colour
